Project

The Legal Rights of Sperm Donors in Ireland and New Zealand

Project Description

In modern Ireland, there has been a rise in the number of couples and single persons, both homosexual and heterosexual, wishing to avail of assisted reproductive technologies in an effort to become parents. In view of a lack of legislative provision for such technologies in Ireland, this project aims to examine sperm donation in Ireland from a family law perspective and analyse what legal rights or responsibilities, if any, should be awarded to or imposed upon Irish sperm donors. The project examines relevant case law in Ireland. The research lends itself to a comparative analysis with New Zealand following research undertaken at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. In that jurisdiction, sperm donation has been statutorily regulated since 2005 and the law provides that the biological parent has no rights or obligations to a donor child. This project focuses on the effectiveness of legislation in New Zealand and on what lessons, if any, could be useful in an Irish context.

Project Details

Principal Investigator:

Dr. Anne Egan (NUIG)

Co-Investigators:

External Partners:

Dates:

Project start: 2011

Grant Source:

N/A

Grant Amount:

N/A

Project Outputs

Advanced Research Consortium on Gender, Culture and the Knowledge Society